From watching the last few games of the season and the first one day tournament, the coaches noticed a lot of the players were reluctant to shoot when travelling with the ball.  They really wanted to walk the ball into the back of the net, and seemed to doubt their ability to strike a moving ball.

With the half term break coming up the coaches didn’t want a very physical session, so the exercises were all based on shooting while travelling with the ball.

Click here to see some more images from the nights session.

First the girls ran at pace into a marked area and shot on the run, 15 metres from goal.  We concentrated on technique and making Nichola in goal work.  We wanted the girls to keep their pace high but still make a good connection with the ball.  Next we delivered the ball from the side and again got the girls to strike on target when arriving at pace.  This is much harder as they had to work out where to put their feet and still maintain a good technique.  Next we played the ball back towards the girls at a slight angle as again they ran at pace towards the goal.  The final drill was for them to strike a bouncing ball thrown in the air by the coaches.

Stars of the night were Chloe J, who constantly kept the ball low, on target and with fantastic power and Nichola in goal for some outstanding saves.

We emphasised that shooting takes practise, especially when travelling at any pace, and is something that the professionals practise for hours and hours.